


You'll Be The Scar

by freakingdork



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Episode Tag, Episode: s04e01 Mayhem, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-03
Updated: 2012-07-03
Packaged: 2017-11-09 02:39:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/450350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freakingdork/pseuds/freakingdork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mayhem/4x01 AU: Morgan doesn't jump clear of the ambulance entirely unscathed and Reid's the first on the scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'll Be The Scar

Morgan knows it's stupid and reckless, but there's no time, none at all. He knows what a bomb like this will do and he knows how many lives could be lost. He also knows that this stupid, reckless thing is the right thing to do.

Garcia is urging him to get out, but he's still too close to the city, too close to the unknowing crowds.

"You know what you are, Garcia?" he asks while he readys himself to jump.

As he jumps out and rolls, the explosion goes off, catapulting him across the grass. Morgan quickly realizes that he miscalculated, didn't jump early enough, didn't make it far enough away himself. Everything hurts and he can feel a piece of metal slowly melding together with the skin and clothes on his backside.

"Morgan!" The female voice is distant and stressed. "Derek?"

There's so much pain as he barely manages to lift his mangled phone closer to his mouth. "Garcia? You're my God...given...solace," he grinds out. "I'm not...tell Spencer that I..."

He's not sure if he finishes the sentence before he passes out.

***

Reid arrives at the park in record time, thanks to Garcia manipulating the traffic lights; she told him that she's doing the same for the ambulance that's coming too before hanging up. His heart starts racing the moment he sees the wreckage burning in the dark. Stumbling out of the vehicle, he starts searching desperately.

"Derek? DEREK?" he screams, hoping that Morgan's conscious again and can hear him over the fiery blaze.

Movement catches his attention and he runs in that direction. Reid's seen burn victims before, but usually corpses and never, ever someone he'd cared for. His brain runs through text book definitions, survival rates, and nothing is good.

There's third degree burns over most of Morgan's body and there isn't a spot without any burns that's big enough to even fit his hand. His face is barely recognizable, though it looks like the worst of Morgan's burns are on his legs. A shard of metal is sticking out from beneath Morgan and there's no telling whether or not it's damaged his spine. Between that and the extensive burns, it's probably better that Reid doesn't touch Morgan, no matter how much he wants to.

"Derek? Please, you have to wake up. I need you to wake up. For me."

Morgan's eyes open, just mere slits, but it's enough.

"There you are. Help's coming okay? You have to hold on."

Morgan reaches for Reid's hand, squeezing it even as a pained noise escapes his burnt, blistered lips.

Sirens wail in the background. "See, they're almost here, it's okay, it's...Derek?"

Morgan's grip loosens and his hand falls away from Reid's as his eyes slide shut. "No! Derek, no, come back, please come back, you have to...I love you...I can't...no, _please_..."

He hardly notices the paramedics until they are next to him, one of them feeling for Morgan's pulse. She turns to her partner, face grim, and he knows. Reid grabs him, pulls his body close. It feels like a dream, a nightmare, because this can't be real.

***

He never realized how hot the metal chunk was when it had pressed against his forearm, but now he has a scar.

It's probably the most painful reminder of the first time that Reid ever told Morgan that he loved him.


End file.
